Scrumptious Sicily: Part 2

It's really the simple things that make a good holiday a great holiday. In this low-cost airline era, getting to a decent beach given the right time of the year, is hardly a challenge. The challenge is finding those small, and seemingly easy details which need to be done well to elevate the holiday standards. And these were my highlights on those "icing-on-the-cake" touches..

Granita & Gelato

We try to be jack-of-all-trades these days, it's not nearly enough to just be darned good at one thing. Sicilians (and indeed Italians) laugh in the face of this, especially when it comes to these icy deserts, judging by how many graniterias and gelatarias are located all over the island.

Who can resist this glossy, full-bodied and profusely indulgent ice cream variety. I say "variety" of ice cream because it's not really like the regular stuff, is it? If gelato was a lady, it would be the generously busty, wholesome and magnetic opera-singing diva on stage!

Yet another Sicilian special, granita. Much less full-bodied, this is the bikini-clad, flippant fling you only have when it's a beach holiday. I love how both gelato and granita come in infinite flavours, there are whole boards filled with every possible imaginable and unimaginable flavour. Above was a flirty cherry granita with chopped bits of the fruit mixed in, a perfect apres-sun cooler!

Tuna

No surprises that an island bears great fish, it's a particular type of tuna that fills these waters though. Off the North West coast of Sicily are the Egadi Islands, of which the largest is Favignana and is a sublime little day trip. We chanced upon an adorable semi-Tunisian style cafe called Camarillo Brillo, and these two fantastic tuna dishes kept us smiling:

Super-duper tuna burger! Not sure that I've ever had a tuna burger before, this was the real business. The pate was firm but succulent, and had roasted pine nuts mixed in. Slightly sauteed chips with fresh pesto was a darling accompaniment,

Tuna with raisins, almonds, tomatoes and balsamic glaze. Sounds incredibly simple, but again it was like tasting the earth and sea on a plate. Remember, it's all in the small details!

And finally, I completely digress food-wise with this highlight, but it was so worth showing:-

Favignana is one of those beautifully unspoilt and untouched tiny islands where time just stands still. The shore is still amazingly shallow even 100 metres into the sea, so you can walk a fair bit into the sparkling azure waters. What better post-lunch rendezvous?

Scrumptious Sicily: Part 1

The August Bank Holiday ends, we have a London Tube strike and the days will now get shorter. Call me Little Miss Happy right now! Despite the uncomfortable truth, I'm still basking in the glory of the most awesome mini-holiday in Sicily.

Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean, and it's rich historical influences of Arabic, Asian and of course European provide the scene to many Italian food heroes. You know these suspects: arancine (risotto balls with fillings such as cheese, vegetables or meat), granita (the icier version of sorbet, in more flavours than there are fruits) to caponata (chopped aubergine stewed with tomatoes usually served with as an appetiser).

I debated about what to blog about with Sicily, it's a true foodie di-, even multi-lemma when literally all that comes into contact with your gastro senses is truly mind-blowing. For me, Italian food is a direct product of it's fertile land, glorious weather and stunning coastline. As Sicily is an island, seafood is the prima donna with vegetables and wine being its starlet chorus!

So I decided to report back on my top two discoveries from this trip, and what a job. It was like picking the winner of a beauty parade of palate pleasers. In a special two-part series from Hungry Female, here are the first two highlights...

First, my new favourite pasta shape: Busiate!

This curly number is a pasta sauce dream. Essentially it is tagliatelle with a perm, and a tremendous friend to all kinds of pasta sauces since its twists and turns collect any chunky or smooth bit of food it can tangle with. As a result you get ideal quantities of food and pasta in one mouthful, genius!

 

Above, this was my first taste of busiate: aubergine roasted to tender awesome-ness, tuna, in a tomato stew. Below, full-on seafood busiate!

Busiate makes appearances all over Sicilian menus, one sauce I didn't get around trying was pesto alla Trapanese, which I assume refers to it's birthplace of Trapani, a port town an hour away from San Vito.

We were lucky enough to chance upon some busiate making, by a quintessential Italian mamma:-

These tiny delicatessens are adorably independent. Our little cook was drying pasta ready for the next day, and all that was in her matchbox shop was pasta and pasta sauces. One type of twist I could do again and again.

Second up, something they call Sicilian caviar, Bottarga.

(image from whatdoyouthink.wordpress.com)

As Sicily's main fish is a variety of tuna, fish roe is obviously an easily acquired item. It is massaged, dried and cured with sea salt to form a tube or slab. It can then be sprinkled as a topping or ingredient, such as in the heavenly pizza above. Those familiar with the Chinese, Spanish or Portugese kitchen will understand the concept of dried salted fish as a flavouring, the advantage of this is that it's instant, uber, fish-a-licious-ness! No hydration required to get the sea salt hit. 

Hang on for part 2! There was really so much to write about these magnificent flavours. If you ever find yourself on this dreamy island, you must visit Dal Cozzaro (where I had the aubergine and tuna busieta), Syrah (the seafood busiate) and Il Timone (for pizza). Service is always relaxed, friendly and oozing with charm. The average price for a pasta or pizza was between 8-10 euros. 

“In France food is all about the genius of cooks, in Italy it’s all about the glory of God.”

How true!

Italy: Culinary Culture in Campania

When life gives you lemons, you must be on the Amalfi Coast. The best thing about Italy is how it's simplicity is it's true sophistication: as cliche as it is, Italian food is all about quality and in wonderful quantities. I've always wanted to go south of Naples to the lemon filled terraces of the Sorrentine Peninsula, home to limoncello, spaghetti alle vongole, parmigiana di melanzane, frittura di pesce and other Neapolitan classics. We packed our bags and appetites over the Easter Bank Holiday and visited Sorrento, Amalfi, Ravello, Capri and Naples. What jet-setters! Or rather bus-hoppers as that is how the locals commute to get around the bendy coast! After an elimination as difficult as the annual Masterchef finals, here are the highlights...

Sorrento: Spaghetti alle vongole, or quite simply Spaghetti with Clams. A simple sauce is made after cooking garlic, olive oil and cherry tomatoes and mixed with clam juice or sea water, it becomes a tasty seafoody emulsion to coat that perfect al dente pasta. 

Ravello: The charming and exquisite Da Salvatore restaurant perched on a cliff with jaw-dropping views of Amalfi beneath. A meal for two with half a bottle of wine was 65 euros, an absolute bargain for what we had.

An artistic amuse bouche of pimiento, anchovy (which was so fresh it was near raw), vinegar and tartar cracker.

Smoked grouper with a fennel and walnut salad, accompanied by a blood orange jus. The orange jus was so incredibly sweet and perfectly reduced, and married so well with the smoky grouper.

Ricotta gnocchi tossed with porcini mushrooms, with buffalo cheek stewed with vegetables. Porcini mushrooms so soft but yielding in their earthy flavour, their texture was almost like roasted aubergine. The buffalo cheek was tender and marbled, with slight hint of pimiento heat from the vegetable stew. A new and awesome flavour combination.

Ah, il limone! Endless yellow ovals dangle from trees on staggered terraces all around the coastline, to add zest and tang to cakes, sauces and fashion the infamous limoncello. Hundreds of bottles spill out from touristy stalls, and very often next to it is it's lesser known cousin, meloncello. Admittedly, sometimes the orange hue borders on neon but it's not half as scary and actually more drinkable than limoncello.

Naples, oh vainglorious Naples! Filthy and frantic on one street and overwhelmingly grand on the next. We arrived here on Easter Sunday to find most restaurants closed. Perhaps a school child's error being in Roman Catholic Central on a key date in the Christian calendar, but La Cantina del Sole in the Old Quarter was a wink from above. It was your quintessential small Italian outfit, run by only a few staff, with plenty of charm. The dish that stood out was the octopus, mushroom and tomato starter: I can sincerely say to never have eaten octopus as fresh as this and for it to come as it did! Up to now, those suckers have always been chopped up and hidden amongst other herbs. The meat was softer than squid, not chewy and interesting to be pared with mushrooms. Kinda like the sea and forest coming together?

And finally, la pizza. Naples' most famous export was truly best saved for last. Again, I risk the cliche but it is just crazily fresh and simple ingredients in abundance which sum up the Italian kitchen. The real deal is not a thin or thick crust but somewhere in the middle, and for what I could see, how good the pizza oven then was to singe and bake this to perfection. All pizza bases have this whiff of garlic that brings it all together. There are endless pizzerias on every corner of the city, but the one we tried and loved was the Antica Pizzeria del Borgo.

All you need in this part of the world is lots of appetite and time to eat your way through. Oh and to work it all off, a hike up Vesuvius or wonder around ancient Pompeii. Buonissimo!